1st Battalion, 8th Infantry, 4th Infantry Division will hold their 5th annual meeting again in Townsend, Tennessee May 6-8th, 2019 at the Talley Ho Inn [Phone: (800) 448-2465].
Looking forward to seeing all you Bullets there. The support troops, who made life bearable for us are especially welcome.
Bring the wives, lots of sight seeing in the beautiful Cades Cove area during the day. The most fun for veterans will be the informal chats around the pool in the evenings.
Bring any memorabilia you have to display if you like...no live ordnance please.

Here you will experience life among the
Grunts, who
slept in the mud of the Ho Chi Minh Trail on the Cambodia/Laos Border.
There are stories of unsung heroes, bravery, regrets, and haunting
mistakes. I was a Platoon Leader,
Executive Officer,
Headquarters Commander in base camp, and a Company Commander in the field. Come
along as I recall courage, death, anger, fear, sadness, and
red Pleiku mud. Arriving a Second Lieutenant and leaving a Captain after
two consecutive tours, nearly destroyed me psychologically. Go on to the
4th Infantry Division Unit Pages to get the full story.
Over 300 Veterans have contributed materials to this site.

Bullets was the nickname
of 1/8th Infantry. We wore a bullet in the camouflage band of our steel pots, a
sign we did not intend to be captured alive!

Above - Me as XO
of B/1/8 on run from Dak To to Pleiku during the dusty dry season.Below -Bathing in a stream at Polei Kleng, just minutes before a mortar attack and my departure to join Task Force Alpha.

"Thou Shalt Not Kill."

Someone I deeply regret KILLING, was a young
NVA
Medic, Hoàng Ngọc Đảm.

This photo of Dam is on an Altar in his family's home. To view other
Personal Documents carried by this heroic Medic, the story of our deadly
encounter, and the impact of returning
these personal documents to his family and village, nearly 35 years later, click
on the photo. This simple act resolved only one of the nearly 200,000 missing in action
cases Vietnam is still desperately investigating.
In May 2008 I returned to Vietnam
and aided the Hoang family in locating and returning Dam's remains to the family
cemetery.

Nation Books released Wandering Souls: Journeys With the Dead and the
Living in Viet Nam late in September 2009. On March 19, 1969,
then young First Lieutenant Homer R. Steedly, Jr., shot and killed a North
Vietnamese Medic, Hoàng Ngọc Đảm, when they met on a jungle trail. Nearly forty
years later he returned to locate and bury Dam's remains in the village cemetery.
This book tells that emotional journey with details from both sides. It is a
captivating story written by Wayne Karlin, a former Marine Corp helicopter door
gunner in Vietnam, who has written extensively on the Vietnam War and visits the
country often. The "Thou Shalt Not Kill" section above tells of
his aid in my journey. My version of the story pales in comparison to
Wayne's. Everyone should read this story. It will touch your very
soul.

To read my complete story, click My Combat Stories.
To read about the other units, who served with me in the 4th Infantry in
Vietnam, click on 4th Infantry Division Unit Pages. These
links also appear on the floating menu for Java equipped browsers.

Any of you who served with me, please contact me and tell me what you remember of these
events. I can't be sure my memories are accurate after over all this time and I
know each of you have different viewpoints and memories. You
all have stories to tell, many that I was too busy to even notice. Write,
email, send photo's, video, audio tapes. I will incorporate all stories into this site's
guestbook and return your precious materials to you safely.
I want to tell our story from all our perspectives. It's time everyone found out about
us and what we did over there. Not all heroes got medals, in fact most
did not. I do not remember all your names, but I do remember your
courage every day, when I wake up alive and free, and again every night before I
fall asleep. Help me to keep the memories of those we left behind alive
for future generations. As John Lennon so aptly said in his 1969
single, lets just "Give Peace a Chance".

Anyone who served with, or in support of the 4th Infantry in Vietnam is
welcome to contribute to this site. That includes the family members of
those who served. Your story about how their service changed them and your
lives is just as significant as the tales of your loved ones service overseas.
We were all changed by the Vietnam experience.
Click Here for more information about how to help me build this
site and tell the complete story....

Where are all you support and service troops??? We grunts would never have made
it without you. I know you have stories to tell...we want to hear them
also.

Never Forget The Price Paid by Veterans For Our Freedom

You will find some maps of our Area of
Operations, including a pan and zoom topo. Click the
magnifier...

If you decide to call me, you have to leave a message and return number.I only pickup for family. I will call you back as soon as I get your message.

March 1969 I was flying in a c/7/17 Cav OH-6 supporting 4th ID troops in the Plei Trap Valley. The unit we were supporting was in heavy contact and one particular small group was cut off from the rest of the main unit. The soldier with whom we were communicating was call sign “Tracer 5.” He was in very close contact and told us that he observed numerous enemy troops, some with fresh dressings
on their wounds. As nightfall approached we told him he’d have to make a break for it but
he had a wounded (or perhaps dead) buddy with him and couldn’t bear to leave him. We had to depart due to lack of light and the next day we were assigned to a different area and were unable to find out what happened to Tracer 5.
Please post this in your site.

MIKE MCELROY
2/8th Infantry
4th Infantry Division

Sir,
I am contacting you to see if anyone may remember my dad, MIKE MCELROY, who served in Vietnam from 1967-68 with the 4th Div, 2nd
of the 8th Infantry, stationed in Pleiku.
Thanks in advance.
Regards,
Mike McElroy

If you knew Mike, email swamp_fox at the address at the bottom of this
page.

Sp/4 James Wagner. C Company, 3rd BN, 12th Infantry, 4th Infantry Division.
Jim's tour began on April 10, 1967 and ended with his death on January 28, 1968.
The incident resulting in his death describes it as friendly fire, died while missing.
His body was identified on February 2, 1968.
If anyone in that unit can give any additional information about Jim, it will be
appreciated. Contact me through the Swamp_Fox email address at bottom of
page.

Daughter of
Larry (Bemis) Savin --- K Company, 75th Rangers, is
looking for a picture of him in Nam. Her Dad
just passed away & she wants to know more about him. She
said that he was wounded but doesn't know the date. If you can
help with this, contact me at the Swamp_Fox email address at
the bottom of the page.

Searching for anyone that knew my father, Thomas Earl Atkinson, 4th Infantry, Pleiku 67-68. Field Wireman
assigned to HHC, 1st of the 8th Infantry, from Mississippi. Also I would like to know what medals he should have received.
Contact through Swamp_Fox email below...

Calling All 4th Infantry Division, Vietnam Veterans

I need your help! I get many requests from Veterans and their families
to locate orders that show their awards and decorations, often to correct their
personnel files, or to receive benefits. If you have any orders from
Vietnam, awards and decorations orders, travel orders, anything that has names
of servicemen who served in Vietnam, please get me a good photocopy, or even
better a 200dpi computer scan of them. I will not release any SSAN or
Service numbers to anyone, except those listed on the orders. This is
really important! Go through your stuff...copies of orders were often
included in the awards case, when the award was made, and they have many other
people listed, as well.

Thanks...Homer - aka Swampfox

Use email address at bottom of page
to contact me for mailing address or phone number. You have to type in the address
manually, and don't forget to include the "Underscore" character between
the Swamp and fox. Swamp_fox

Mark Garrison, 119th, AHC (Croc's and Gators),
flew during the final extraction of Task Force
Alpha from Hill 467. He was one of the Croc's who provided
gunship support for us and his book "GUTS
'N GUNSHIPS" gives great insight into what these brave souls
faced during their tour. My respect for those brave aviators has
always been deep, but hearing the details from their
perspective, makes their courage and dedication even more
amazing. Read this book if you want to know more about the
pilots, co-pilots, and crew and their daily lives in combat.
You can hear an audio of his role in the
Battle of Hill 467 by Task Force Alpha Here.

Robert Clifton is looking for members of C/2/35th Infantry, who might
have been in country, when he received the
Bronze
Star.

The 4th Infantry Division underwent a major reorganization and became a “modular” division, and as a result, the 124th Signal Battalion was inactivated on 16 December 2004 and remains inactive to this day. A
Specialist from Hq & Hq Bn, 4th Inf Div has located thousands of photos from the 124th and needs help identifying these images in his efforts to preserve these important historical documents. Click Here
to see his guestbook posting.

Colonel Hale H. Knight was 1st Brigade
Commander with the 4th Infantry Division in Vietnam from 24 October 1968
through 21 April 1969+. He was one of the finest combat leaders I have ever known. Only recently
have I learned where he came by his incredible understanding of the soldier
on the ground in a jungle environment. It appears Colonel Knight was a hero
and accomplished jungle fighter early on in his career while serving with
Detachment 101 of the Office of Strategic Services in the China-Burma-India
Theater of World War II. Colonel Knight died in June 2001 and was
buried in Arlington that July. His family has graciously allowed us to post
nearly 200 photos from his personal collection. Many of the Brigade
and Battalion Staff, as well as, many Company Commanders are shown here for
the first time. Click on his photo for the full story and photo gallery.

Joe Galloway's "God's
Own Lunatics" tribute to the 4,095 helicopter pilots,
crewmembers and observers lost in the Vietnam War.The
sound of chopper blades still stir my soul nearly half a century later.

Visit www.tibart.com, a wonderful
nature photography site designed by my wife, Tibby. (Some of my photography is shown there also.)
Her YouTube channel is pisgahtib --- my channel is swampfoxrvn.

Please send me the link to any page with errors since the last site update.

I served two tours in the Jungles of the Central Highlands of South
Vietnam, along the Cambodia/Laos border,
patrolling the Ho Chi Minh Trail system...Dak To – Ban Me Thout – Pleiku – An Khe – Qui Nhon,
but spent most of my time in the triple canopy jungles, sleeping in the
mud, heat, insects and climbing those awful hills.

All Email addresses are in picture format only to discourage web bots from
harvesting for junk mail lists. Type them into your mail
manually. Site designed for Internet Explorer Version 6.0 or higher,
viewed with text size medium and desktop resolution of 1024 x 768 pixels.

Webmaster:Homer R. Steedly Jr.
(Email: ) Copyright 08/12/1995 -
03/21/2019. Commercial Use of material on this site is prohibited.